Monday, November 21, 2011

He Will Deliver Us From Our Bondage

One difficult week

I have a confession to make… I have been having a lot of
problems with my companion. Elder Vasquez and I have very different personalities
and styles. I like to do things the way I have learned and have been taught,
and well sometimes not everything works out like he wants it to. I have been
having a lot of problems with him for quite some time now. We haven’t been
really talking about it all that much because we both cannot come to an
agreement on a lot of stuff. Well, this last Thursday, I just
couldn’t take it anymore and I exploded. I expressed all of the
little things that have been bugging me.
He explained to me all of the little things that I do that bug him. We
talked for more than 2 hours. We talked for so long about all these little things
that we had to get ready to leave or we would have been late to
lunch. We are doing a lot better now… we are coming to understand a
little bit better the perspective of the other person so that we can come to
agreements. Many times in the last few days I have thought about what this
experience has taught me and how I really am grateful for a companion that has
been a little bit hard for me to handle. I can imagine that what I have learned
now will be a great help to me when I am married and I how to come to
agreements with my future wife. I don’t think that I have fully mastered the
technique… but in all things, if we put our trust in the Lord, he will deliver
us from our bondage. Well I am not saying that a future wife is going to be a
burden…more that feelings of remorse and frustration are a heavy burden to bear
all day long. Yes, I think, I am learning here on the mission.

I had an interesting experience happen to me the other day.
I was working in the area of my district leader for a day. Sometimes we do exchanges
like this so that he can see how we are working. My companion was with our
district leader in our area and I was in his area with his companion. They have
a family that they have been preparing for baptism. The Family has the Mom, Dad
and a older daughter. Their daughter is a Mom too, having a little girl that is
9 years old. So if anyone is counting that is four baptisms. Elder Quispe, the
companion of my district leader, was verifying who was going to baptizing who.
I was just sitting there letting him do his thing. He asked the Father first
and the Father said, “Elder Peña” (my district leader). Then he asked the Mom and she said, “Elder
Quispe.” He asked the other mom and she
also said, “Elder Peña.” Then he turned
to the 9 year old girl and asked her. She sat there thinking for a minute or
two and then pointing at me she says ¨HIM¨. I couldn’t help but laugh… I
exclaimed, but you don’t even know who I am, this is the first time that you
have ever seen me. BUT…SHE HAD CHOSEN. She would not let anyone else convince
her, it was me or nobody else. So this Saturday I baptized the little
girl. I am sending pictures. I would give you more of the story but to be
totally honest I have no idea how to explain. I felt like I had seen her before
and she had seen me. I guess that’s just how things work out sometimes.

We also had another sudden baptism this week. One of the
ladies in our ward has a son that turned 8.
She asked us if we would baptize him and of course we did!

Well I was doing some thinking about the future again. Let
me just tell you that there is lots of time to think here on the mission. There
is no TV, music and all of that other stuff to keep you constantly distracted.
The only things we think about are the people we teach, the gospel and the
future. Well, anyway, the future… I was thinking about what I want to be… I am
seriously stuck between three things…Doctor, Lawyer, and FBI agent. That’s
serious… I don’t know what to think yet. Give me some feedback.